The Israeli regime's top spy agencies reportedly seek to “assassinate” Hamas leaders around the world after its brutal war on the Gaza Strip that has already killed more than 15,000 Palestinians ends.
With orders from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the regime’s top spy agencies, including Mossad, are working on plans to assassinate Hamas leaders living in Lebanon, Turkey, Qatar, and other Persian Gulf countries, The Wall Street Journal cites unnamed Israeli officials on Thursday.
"The question now for Israeli leaders isn't about whether to try to kill Hamas leaders elsewhere in the world, but where—and how, the officials said," wrote the newspaper.
The report claimed that there had been calls to immediately assassinate Khaled Meshaal, one of the top Hamas leaders, after the Palestinian resistance group launched the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation against the regime on October 7.
Israel’s prime minister hinted at the regime’s plans for assassinations abroad in an address in late November, when he said that he had “instructed the Mossad to act against the heads of Hamas wherever they are.”
Israel has a long history of conducting assassination operations outside its borders in violation of international law, sovereignty of other countries, and human rights.
Israel’s minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant also threatened Hamas leaders back then, saying, “The struggle is worldwide.”
Efraim Halevy, a former Mossad director, however, told the Journal that the regime’s plan “is not supported by everyone.”
"Pursuing Hamas on a worldwide scale and trying to systematically remove all its leaders from this world is a desire to exact revenge, not a desire to achieve a strategic aim."
After Israel was caught off guard by Hamas operation on the occupied territories, it started a brutal bombing campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip. The regime has so far killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, about 40 percent of whom are children.